Posted by Helen on: 11.13.2006 /
In a comment on “Meg’s Conference Experience”, Meg asked this question:
Here’s to the bleeding hearted anti-poverty activists of the world!! Of which Rachel, Anna, Bens and I are just a few. Hey, a question to all you other BHAPAs … I get really frustrated about how helpless I feel to make any significant difference in the world. Often, when I’m involved in social action, I feel it’s more for my own sake than that of those I’m there to help. Do you all relate, and how can I remedy this and really make a difference? (Comments welcome from non-BHAPAs too, of course!!)
Comment by: Stephan
1I feel your frustration. I often feel like I am only bringing a teacup full of relief into a desert full of need. I think all we can do is keep carrying our teacups and try to encourage others to pick up theirs.
Comment by: Helen
2Thanks Stephan - nice analogy. If we each do what’s doable for us hopefully it will add up to something significant.
Meg, regarding your question about whether what you do is for your own sake: I think it’s ok to feel happy if we do something to try to help someone else. It doesn’t mean we only did it for selfish reasons.
Comment by: Ingrid
3Meg, it sounds like you are doing your part…doing what you can with what you have. What more can you expect of yourself.
I think those of us who come from church traditions have to be careful, because often we get caught up in ‘why is god not blessing me, why am I not moving mountains?’
Do the things you do because you want to. Because you want to make a difference in your community, even if it was selfish who cares, it is still worth doing.
Comment by: David H
4Many Christians do missions work (whatever that means) as a quid quo pro. I will do the work to get a listening ear. If I don’t get the ear, then I don’t do the work. Being in a Mennonite setting at the moment, I believe the work should be done because it needs to be done. To do it any other way is not Christian, it is commerce.
Many Christians also get caught up in either how much can be done or how many will come to Christ as a result. Both offer plenty of excuses for failure or not even starting. If you look at the world in an analogy of a burning house and all you have is one bucket, then it makes sense to save your energy and not try to put out the fire. However, if you look at the world as a one hurting, needful human, then even if you can’t save them (spiritually or physically) you can help improve whatever life they have. And that is doing what Jesus asks.
To make everything about the tote board (how many helped, how many saved) is to dehumanize both the giver and the receiver.
It isn’t about making a difference in the world, it is about making a difference in myself. I can’t change the world or, realistically, any of its inhabitants. But I can change me from someone who doesn’t help to someone who does. If that makes you feel good — that’s good. If it makes someone else feel better — that’s even better.
Comment by: bianca
5i have a very hard time with this as well… even when dealing with the people i see every day. it’s like i see the pain in their hearts, or i’m acutely aware of their loneliness… and i vacilate between trying to reach out and trying to ignore them. because how can i possibly make a difference in each person i see that has such need? but the risk of shutting them out is the numbing of my heart and that doesn’t work either… so i’m often left with a profound sense of helplessness…
Comment by: Rachel
6I agree, Helen. I think that whenever we serve others or stand for justice, we do it for our own benefit as well - so our hearts will be expanded, so we will be more free from selfishness and materialism, so we can be more grateful, more connected, more whole. As a Christian, I see working for justice as advancing the Kingdom of God. Acts of service become acts of worship. So even if my actions are small and feeble, they are part of a larger redemptive whole.
Comment by: Rachel
7Bianca, I think that by opening your heart you are doing the best thing you can do. There are so many people out there dying for someone to really SEE them. And maybe all you can offer is a hug, a smile, a sympathetic word, some eye contact and a hello. But you are ministering and giving of yourself by simply choosing to feel and to see.
Comment by: Karen
8As a Christian, I got totally burned out trying to make a difference. I was one of those 10% of people who do 90% of the work at church. I’m sure you know the type! Eventually, I crashed and burned, big time.
As a humanist, I still have the same goals (minus the evangelism) to make a difference in the world. But I also recognize the need for balance in my life.
So, I do a few things deliberately (donate to organizations, volunteer my time), I stay educated and current on local, national and international events looking for ways to help on those levels, and then I open myself up to spontaneous opportunities to help others. Helping could be always having a smile and saying “hi” when I’m on my walks and bike rides - some people may not get a friendly greeting all day otherwise. It could be encouraging friends who are feeling down. It could be taking time to listen to them. It could be giving advice and guidance (for free) in my area of professional expertise. I find opportunities come my way every single day and mostly I jump on them.
When I say I need balance, however, that means there are days when I can’t take every opportunity out there and run with it. And that’s okay; I don’t beat myself up anymore over that.
I try to be very realistic and understand that I can’t do more than my little part, but whatever I can do, I do with enthusiasm and joy. :-)
Comment by: meg
9thank you catE community for sharing your wisdom. it is heartening to know i’m not alone in this struggle. i love the idea of HUMANISING that is woven through this conversation. i get exhausted, making sure i’m relating to ‘the other’ (be they present or an abstraction) as a complete human, with needs, longings, confusion, desire… all this is very caught up in my own process of healing, from dehumanising abuse as a child and teen. it kind of messes with my natural, intuitive capacity to automatically value and honour and respect others. which i want to do. but sometimes i think i am supposed to be their messiah, if i could only work out how, rather than simply their friend, bringing them a teacup of water…
Comment by: Dave
10This is a very real issue that I’ve struggled with. I came to the conclusion that there are two general ways which we can help those with less means … (a) survival-oriented activities; and (b) sustainable poverty cycle breaking activities.
Both are important. The first is about helping the poor with their daily survival needs. The second is about activities which provide opportunities for the poor to grow out of their situation (often multi-generational) of perpetual poverty. I now choose to give money to (a) and more money, time and energy to (b). I blog about my learnings on (b) on my blog: Defeating Global Poverty.
Comment by: David H
11I don’t want to sound trivial, but on the issue of sustainable poverty-cycle breaking activities, I frequently urge (some might even say evangelize) about purchasing fair trade goods such as coffee.
It may not seem like a big deal, but coffee is a cash-crop in many developing nations. The typical American conglomerate pays a pittance to buy the stuff and then often sells it at a premium in the US. Just today NPR reported about efforts by the government of Ethiopia to restructure their coffee trade to bring more money to the growers. At the moment Yergichaffee coffee may sell for $25-30 a pound in the US, but wholesales in Ethopia get only about $1.25 — meaning growers get even less.
Fair Trade organizations attempt to get more of the money to growers so they can have a sustainable life. One organizations from whom I have purchased is Pura Vida coffee. They have their HQ in the Seattle area.
Pura Vida goes far beyond simply buying and selling coffee. They built a roasting facility in Costa Rica to provide jobs for an entire village. With profits from the sale of coffee they built a school, computer training facility and a clinic for that village. They fund educational programs for their growers around the world and have growers tour universities in the US to talk about the importance of fair trade. Plus they have darn good coffee.
I’m sure there are plenty of other fair trade organizations selling coffee and other goods. But as an example of why fair trade is important, I read an NY Times article a while back about the ongoing civil issues in Columbia. The US has spent tens of billions of dollars there over the past few decades. We have troops advising in the country and supply the government with sophisticated weapons with which to fight the drug cartels and communist insurgency. As part of that program we supply the government of Columbia with defoliants. These are used in an effort to kill cocaine plants growing in fields and have been spread of thousands of acres.
Farmers from Columbia have testified that they turned to growing cocaine because of pressure from those fighting the government and because they couldn’t feed their families on the pennies they were paid per pound of coffee by US corporations.
To add to the irony, people in the US buy close to three-quarters of the cocaine grown in Columbia and that money buys weapons for the cartels and insurgents. Thus my country, through various vectors, is responsible for many of the problems and much of the hardship in that country.
I can’t stop the drug trade or adopt every starving child in Columbia. But I can refuse to buy coffee from US corporations. It may only help a little, but in some countries the difference between starvation and a sustainable life is only about .80 cents per pound of additional money to the grower. It may not seem like much, but as the folks at Pura Vida will tell you, it can mean everything. Doing that helps me sleep a little easier when I’m not buzzed on caffeine.
Comment by: Karen
12This is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about when I say stay educated about what’s going on in the world and you’ll find natural ways to help.
I happen to enjoy world music. Part of the joy I get from it is knowing that when I buy CDs and go to concerts performed by international artists, I’m helping their culture and their causes. All of them (that I’m aware of) have foundations to help children and other artists in their countries. They also employ people from their society. Their exposure to the West trickles ideas and energy back to their countries.
It’s all part of helping others just being deliberate about everyday things you do. No pressure, no worries, no self-condemnation needed.
Comment by: Rachel
13David, I love Pura Vida! We have been drinking their coffee for the last year and half and it is excellent. We order over the Internet in 5 lb. bags of beans and then grind it at home. Yum! When the box comes from UPS, you can smell the wonderful aroma before you even open it. And it is fairly traded, shade grown and organic from a 100% charitably owned company. Doesn’t get any better than that!
Also - I ordered little wooden hand made nativity sets for my nieces through A Greater Gift. They come from a place called “Gospel House” in Sri Lanka that provides job training and good wages to Sri Lankans. The figures are handpainted, colorful and unique. I’m going to give them to the girls at Thanksgiving and show them Sri Lanka on the map and where it is in relation to us. I love that kind of stuff!
I’m gradually finding more opportunities to make more just and sustainable purchases - always eager to hear new ideas.
Comment by: meg
14Rachel I love the enthusiasm and hopefulness and goodness with which you embrace the world!!
I’ve just read Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugral address, given just one month before his death, after the civil war ended, and was utterly struck by his excellent concluding words: “Let us strive…to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” I wonder what Abe would say to George W. about what he treats as valuable, should the two of them happen to meet?
Comment by: David H
15I recently read a book called Founding Fathers. It gives a great deal of insight into what the founders of our nation thought about the political pickles we are in today. highly recommended.
Comment by: Rachel
16Another way I try to make a difference is to add my voice together with other voices on issues I care about. One good way to do this is through The One Campaign, which is part of the global Campaign to Make Poverty History. We are also members of Bread for the World, a Christian advocacy group that lobbies Congress on behalf of hungry people, in the US and around the world.
Both of these groups send out legislative alerts via email. They will say, for example, there is a bill before Congress now to increase funding for pediatric AIDS or to cut funding for food stamps. They give you the information you need to call your congresspeople and express your opinion. The Congressional switchboard is an 800 number and it only takes a couple minutes to make a call. What is really exciting is when I get an email back several days later that says something like “30,000 of you called and the bill has passed!” The great thing about the legislative email alerts is that they are timely and specific.
Comment by: Micky
17There are so many people out there dying for someone to really SEE them. And maybe all you can offer is a hug, a smile, a sympathetic word, some eye contact and a hello. But you are ministering and giving of yourself by simply choosing to feel and to see.
Rachel, you hit the NAIL ON THE HEAD!! One doesn’t have to save the world. I don’t do anything, the HOLY SPIRIT, does - The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it’s sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the SPIRIT [John 3: 8]
Peace Be With You
Micky
Comment by: Helen
18Micky wrote:
Micky, you’re so right! I think you would like our Ordinary Attempts blog - it’s stories of ordinary people doing these things and they lives they are touching.
Comment by: Pete S.
1911/13/06 10:21 PM | Comment Link |
There is nothing at all wrong or compromising about feeling good when you do good. It is logical and reciprocal. I believe that God created me in order to do good: help others, feel compassion, practice mercy, love others, nudge smiles and laughter from kids, educate those unknowing, and share my creativity with whoever will care to look or listen.
Will I save the world? No. I may bring peace, for a moment, or hope for a while, in someone’s life, but I am not the Savior. I am not meant to be the Savior. But I work alongside the One Who I believe to be the Savior….
I agree wholeheartedly: Acts of service become acts of worship. Thank you, Rachel and Helen.
Comment by: Pete S.
20Karen wrote:
I think it’s too bad that you realized the need for balance after you burned yourself out as a Christian. Did you find yourself leaving behind a Christian faith because you felt obligated or “told” to keep doing more, and since you couldn’t measure up to other people’s expectations, or your own expectations, you dropped the whole “do, do, do” mentality as self-destructive, in essence equating a Christian faith with an impossible, unrealizable standard of saving the world, or serving every need that came your way? I ask this, because I’m beginning to see certain patterns among people who get burned out by “doing” the Christian “thing”, or so they perceive.
I wonder what would have happened if you would have found a better balance before you burned out? Would you still believe in God? Would you find joy instead of severity within a church?
Comment by: Rachel
21Well said, Pete!
Comment by: Helen
22Thanks Pete.